Wednesday, April 05, 2017

Norwegian army can only defend an area of about 600 square kilometers

via Sputnik.

The Norwegian army can only defend an area of about 600 square kilometers, which corresponds to a single medium-size Norwegian municipality (out of 426), a new army report has found to the embarrassment of the Norwegian Defense Ministry.

Last year, Norway adopted a new long-term defense plan for the army and the home guard. A new report by Brigadier Aril Brandvik has identified crucial drawbacks in the defense plan, which in effect leaves the Nordic country virtually defenseless. According to the Brandvik report, which was made public by the Norwegian daily Aftenposten, the Norwegian Armed Forces were found to be suffering from low combat readiness and lacking "real battle force" against a technically sophisticated opponent.

With the exception of the Telemark battalion (with around 470 soldiers), intelligence battalion and special forces, the Norwegian Army was found to lack units that are ready for battle within a few hours. With only one brigade, and with weak range of anti-aircraft and artillery, the Norwegian Armed Forces was found to be able to defend an area corresponding to a middle-size Norwegian municipality with an area of 600 square kilometers, such as Rissa, Vardø and Førde — compared to the country's total area of 385,000 square kilometers. The highly limited impact force made it thus difficult to defend Norway from potential aggression until the arrival of allies.

The Norwegian Army and by extension the country is in trouble. IF (and I still have yet to hear a reasonable explanation of why Russia would invade them) they were to face even moderate aggression the country would fall.